Roos: browsing for books

So the time over winter break ran away with me, and there is so much in the Roos book that I have not looked at, so what I am going to do today, before the semester's wildness really takes hold tomorrow, is to look through as much of Roos today as I can, noting likely books that I can try to seek out online later and add to the Alchemical Library. :-)

Agrippa of Nettesheim, De occulta philosophia 1510
De alchimia, 1526
Peter Apian, Astronomicum Caesareum 1540
J. C. Barchusen, Elementa chemicae 1718
J. J. Becker, Physica subterranea 1703
W. Blake, Book of Urizen 1794 etc. etc.
Jacob Bohme. Hieroglyphica Sacra 1764 (appendix to 4 vol. W. Law)
Jacob Bohme. Theosophical Works 1682
Sebastian Brant, Hexastichon 1509
.A. Cellarius, harmonia Macrocosmica 1660
Conrad Celtis, Amores, illustrated by Durer 1502
Daniel Cramer, Emblemata Sacra 1617
A. Eleazar, Donum Dei 1735
.Figurarum Aegypticorum Secretarum, 18th c.
R. Fludd, Philosophia sacra 1626
R. Fludd, Medicina Catholica 1629
R. Fludd, Summum Bonum 1629
R. Fludd, Utriusque Cosmi
R. Fludd, Philosophia Moysaica1638
R. Fludd, Integrum Morborum Mysterium 1631
D. A. Freher, Works of J. Behmen, Law edition 1764
D. A. Freher, Paradoxa Emblemata 18th c. ms.
G. Gichtel, Theosophia practica, 1898
de Hooghe, Hieroglyphica, 1744
Hermann Hugo, Pia Desideria 1659
.Heinrich Jamsthaler, Viatorum spagyricum 1625
Athanasius Kircher, Iter extaticum 1671
A. Kircher, Ars magna lucis 1671
A. Kircher, Musurgia universalis 1650
A. Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus 1652
A. Kircher, Mundus Subterraneus 1678
A. Kircher, Obeliscus aegyptiacus 1666
A. Kircher, Ars magna sciendi 1669
A. Kircher, Arithmologia 1665
A. Kircher, Turris Babel 1679
A. Kircher, Arca Noe 1675
Johann Kunckel, Ars vitraria experimentalis 1744
.Janus Lacinius, Pretiosa Margarita 1546
.Lambsprinck, De lapide philosophico 1625
Leadbeater and Besant (!), Occult Chemistry 1908
Ramon Lull, De nova logica 1512
Ramon Lull, Ars brevis 1578
.Johannes Macarius, Abraxas 1657
M. Maier, Viatorium 1618
S. Michelspacher, Cabala 1616
Mutus liber
J. D. Mylius, Anatomia auri 1628
J. D. Mylius, Philosophia reformata 1622
Thomas Norton, Tractatus chymicus 1616
.Cornelius Petraeus, Sylva philosophorum 17th c.
.Philotheus, Symbola Christiana 1677
Gregor Reisch, Pretiosa Margarita 1503
.Rosarium philosophorum, 16th c.
.C. Knorr von Rosenroth, Kabbala denudata 1684
Gregorius Anglus Sallwigt (von Welling). Opus mago-cabalisticum, 1719.
Theophilius Schweighart, Speculum sophicum Rhodostauroticum 1604
E. Sibley, A Key to Magic and the Occult Sciences c. 1800
Speculum veritatis, 17th c.
C. Stengelius, Ova Paschalia Sacro Emblemata, 1672
.D. Stolcius von Stolcenberg, Viridarium chymicum 1624
.A. Sucquet, Via vitae aeternae 1625
Theatrum Chemicum 1661
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum 1652
E. Thurneysser Quinta Essentia 1574
.S. Trismosin, Splendor Solis, 16th c.
.S. Trismosin, Aureum vellus 1708
.J.C. von Vaanderbeeg, Manductio Hermetico-Philosophia 1739
.Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes), Lumen de Lumine 1693
.Georg von Welling, Opus mago-cabalisticum 1760

Roos. Alchemy and Mysticism (4)

Here are the other summary posts from Roos's Alchemy and Mysticism. I'm beginning the Macrocosm section of the book today at p. 34.

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Roos opens the Macrocosm section with a quote from the Timaeus about God creating the world as an illustration of his own perfection: "By turning it he shape it into a sphere, giving it the most perfect form of all."

The first illustration is a weird and gorgeous walled courtyard from the Livre de Artephius, and there is also a quote from Janus Lacinius, Pretiosa Margarita novella which they have at Hathi, plus an English translation too: The new pearl of great price. Here is the full title: The new pearl of great price : a treatise concerning the treasure and most precious stone of the philosophers, or, the method and procedure of this divine art : with observations drawn from the works of Arnoldus, Raymondus, Rhasis, Albertus, and Michael Scotus / first published by Janus Lacinius, with a copious index. Unfortunately, both of these books are only sparsely illustrated, but I am including them here for future reference.

By Googling, I did find my way to the image itself at this amazing Pinterest Board: The Ritman Library. Here is Roos's comment on it: "In the courtyard: sulphur and mercury, the two basic components of matter. The three walls symbolize the three phases of the Work, which begins in spring under the zodiac sign of Aries and the decaying corpse. In summer, in the sign of Leo, the conjunction of spirit and soul occurs, and in December, in the sign of Sagittarius, the indestructive, red spirit-body emerges, the elixir or the drinkable gold of eternal youth."

The next image is also a walled courtyard that looks something like a labyrinth; it is from G. van Vreeswyk, De Goude Leeuw of 1676. I did not find that book online, but I did find a 1674 book at Google Books: De groene leeuw, of Het licht der philosophen. Oh wait, here it is at the great Munich digital library: De goude leeuw of den asijn der wysen. But I'm not finding the image in Roos so I'll move on!

The next page is about the gnostic doctrine called Ophitism, and there's a Wikipedia article. The illustration is a modern reconstruction of their doctrine based on a sea monster at the heart of creation from which radiate out the spheres of the earth and other planets. Roos explains: "After death the earthly body remains behind as a shell in tartarus, and the soul rises through the region of air, Beemoth, and back up to the archontes, although these attempt to obstruct the soul's passage. hence, precise knowledge (gnosis) of the passwords and signs is required to open the way to sevenfold purification." Wild stuff, all new to me. There's even a separate article on the mystical drawings associated with this movement: Ophite Diagrams: "The Ophite Diagrams are ritual and esoteric diagrams used by the Ophite Gnostic sect, who revered the serpent from the Garden of Eden as a symbol of wisdom, which the malevolent Demiurge tried to hide from Adam and Eve."

Roos then moves on to the neo-Platonic cosmic hierarchies (like Pseudo-Dionysius) and also Dante's Divine Comedy. Here's a diagram from La Materia della Divina Commedia di Dante Alighieri, by Michelangelo Caetani (wrongly cited as Cactani in Roos), 1855, at Internet Archive.

Roos then includes medieval maps with the nested spheres ascending to God or Christ above them.

He then moves on to diagrams inspired by Isidore's four elements and how they can be combined in relation also to the four seasons and the four points of the compass. Then he shows how Fludd took this old tradition and merged it with Cabalistic diagrams, resulting in these diagrams of macrocosm and microcosm. Utriusque cosmi maioris scilicet et minoris metaphysica, physica atqve technica historia at Hathi Trust. So much gorgeous stuff here, including diagrams much more elaborate than the ones in Roos's book. Look at the frontispiece from Volume 1: Integrae Naturae Speculum, the Mirror of Nature as a Whole.

I found this detailed commentary online from Wayne Shumaker's Occult Sciences in the Renaissance (I found a used copy for just 90 cents at Amazon and have ordered it!): "The outer three circles, which contain symbols that represent cherubim, seraphim, and archangels, surround the sphere of the fixed stars, the sphere of the planets, and two additional spheres of fire and air. At the top, God’s hand holds a chain which descends to the figure of a nude virgin, Nature, pictured with starry hair in order to prevent identification as a pagan goddess. From her left hand, in turn, the chain descends to an ape, a symbol for Art; along the chain God’s powers and effects are transmitted. Nature guides the primum mobile and turns the fixed stars (the draftsman has found no pictorial equivalents of these functions); also, influences from the fixed stars pass through her hands to generate material substances, and the planets act as marculi, or “little hammers”, to produce earthly metals. Although pictured on one of her breasts, the sun is Nature’s heart, and her belly is filled with the moon’s body (corpore lunari repletur). The life and vitality of elemental creatures are born from her breast, which also feeds (lactat) the creatures constantly. The earth under Nature’s right foot stands for sulphur, the water under her left foot for mercury; the joining of these through her body symbolizes their union in whatever is generated or grows. The ape, Art, is “born from man’s talents” and helps Nature by means of secrets learned from diligent observation of her ways. The seven innermost circles represent animals, vegetables, minerals, the “more liberal arts”, “Art Supplementing Nature in the Animal Kingdom”, “Art Helping Nature in the Vegetable Kingdom”, and “Art Correcting Nature in the Mineral Kingdom”. The animals shown are, on the right, the fish, the snail, the eagle, and woman; on the left, the dolphin, the snake, the lion, and man. In the same order, the vegetables are flowers and roots, wheat; trees, grapes. The minerals are sal ammoniac, orpiment (Mercurial), copper (Venereal), and silver (Lunar); talc (if taleum is a mistake for talcum, glossed by Ruland as a “transparent, brilliant material – again Lunar), antimony, (Jovial), lead (Saturnian), gold (Solar). The more liberal arts are fortification, painting, perspective, geometry, music, arithmetic; motion, time, cosmography, astrology, geomancy. (The usual list included grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy). The arts which supplement or otherwise assist r correct nature are the following: in the animal kingdom, medicine, egg production, bee-culture, sericulture; in the vegetable kingdom, tilling and tree-grafting; in the mineral kingdom, distillation by means of retorts and distillation by means of cucurbits (gourd shaped vessels)."

More about Robert Fludd at Wikipedia: "Robert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus (17 January 1574 – 8 September 1637), was a prominent English Paracelsian physician with both scientific and occult interests. He is remembered as an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist and Rosicrucian apologist."

Definitely someone to learn more about in the months to come! Apparently his philosophy was based on macrocosm-microcosm parallels. You can see it intersecting with the human mind here in this wild diagram: De triplici animae in corpore visione. Click here for full size. I don't see the Latin transcribed online anywhere which surprises me; the commentary begins thus: "Hic demonstrantur tres animae visiones, videlicet quatenus illa est sensus, quatenus imaginatio, et quatenus ratio, intellectus, et mens." I will see if I can find time to work on that... there must be a transcription online somewhere!

These last two images are not in Roos but I could not resist including them; I am guessing they might show up in Roos's book later! 

Roos. Alchemy and Mysticism (3)

Here are the other summary posts from Roos's Alchemy and Mysticism. I'm still on the Introduction to the book, starting today at p. 28.

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Roos has now moved into the allegorical reading of Paracelsus: "These Paracelsian Tria Prima [mercury, sulfur, salt] are not chemical substances, but spiritual forces, from whose changeable proportions the invisible blacksmiths or craftsmen of nature produce the transient material compositions of the objective world."

Ooooh, I really like this passage: "Finding the correct source material for the Work was the chief concern of every alchemist, his specific secret, well-protected by code names. And the riddles had it that nothing was easier than finding it, because it is at home in all elements, even in the dust of the street; and although, like Christ, it is really the most precious thing in the world, to the ignorant it is the 'most wretched of all things'."

For the four element approach, Roos has a Stolzius illustration from the Viridarium showing the four elements as women with different triangular symbols and emblematic labels. I need to find that one in the book! ... Here it is, although I wish I had a higher res version to see the figures in more detail. The symbols on which the women are standing are the classical four elements, but except for the phoenix (?) and lion (?), I am not sure about the figures on the pots on their heads:

earth — water — air  — fire 

🜃  —  🜄  —  🜁  —  🜂

For the source material, there is a lovely illustration from the Atalanta fugiens, "the source material for the lapis can be found everywhere: in the earth, or the mountains, in the air and in the nourishing water." If only the things we were seeking really did look like big blocks of stuff just waiting for us to pick them up! I've transcribed and translated the poem in another post: De secretis Naturae.

Roos alerts us to be on the lookout for things that come in fours, and also the "quintessence," the fifth element: "It was the goal of all alchemists to bring this fifth element down to earth through the repeated transmutation that their work entailed."

One set of four I am not so attuned to are the colors in progression: nigredo, albedo, citrinititas, rubedo, for blackening, whitening, yellowing, and reddening.

Roos then has an emblem from the Musaeum Hermeticum which shows the eternal lapis (six-pointed star) produced by rotation of elements, unifying upper and lower, fire and water, with the earthly gold as Apollo in he underworld with his six Muses/metals. I found the book at Hathi, and this is the frontispiece:

The Latin advice there at the end is very nice: sit tibi scire satis! "may it be for you to know enough!" — presumably reading the book will allow that wish to come true. Anyway, I will have to include this nice item in my Latin Reader soon. There is an article about the book, with an inventory of its contents, at Wikipedia.

Okay, that's the end of the Introduction; I'll start with the next section — Macrocosm — next time!

Roos. Alchemy and Mysticism (2)

Here are the other summary posts from Roos's Alchemy and Mysticism. I'm still on the Introduction to the book, starting today at p. 15.

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Roos is now zooming in on German traditions, including the court of Emperor Rudolf II, "known as the German Hermes, whose Prague court was home to the most famous esoteric scientists of the day."

There is now the first image of a book by Athanasius Kircher: the Turris Babel. That's at Hathi Trust: Athanasii Kircheri Turris Babel sive Archontologia at Hathi Trust. There are some lovely plates here; definitely worth investigating later. And there is an even more lovely presentation at the University of Heidelberg's Digital Library. I'm not finding the Kircher Museum plate that Roos says is in this book (?), but there are some wonderful other plates like this one that opens the book, with the title of the book appearing on the placard to the left:

It's clear that Roos is also a fan of Fludd, which is great! I would certainly like to learn more about the "Trismegistian-Platonick-Rosy-crucian Doctor." And here is how Roos characterizes Kircher: "in his early attention to oriental and Asiatic systems of religion, he prepared the ground for the adventurous syncretism of the Theosophical Society." That definitely gets my interest; I've always wanted to learn more about Kircher.

Now going back to the origins of alchemical ideas, Roos draws a contrast between the demiurge of Plato and of Gnosticism: "While in Plato's world creation myth, Timaeus, the demiurgen, also called the poet, forms a well-proportioned cosmos out of the primal world, in the form of an organism with a soul, the Gnostic demiurge produces a terrible chaos, a corrupt and imperfect creation which, in the belief of the alchemists, must be improved and completed through their art with a new organization or reorganization."

He then links Gnosis and Cabala: "Before the Fall, according to the Gnostic-Cabalistic myths, the whole of heaven was a single human being of fine material, the giant, androgynous, primordial Adam, who is now in every human being, in the shrunken form of this invisible body, and who is waiting to be brought back to heaven."

And this passage about the imagination is great; I need to find this actual passage in Paracelsus: "The equivalent in man of the demiurgic, world-creating urge of the outer stars is the creative capacity of the imagination, which Paracelsus calls "the inner star." Imagination is not to be confused with fantasy. The former is seen as a solar, structuring force aimed at the eida, the paradigmatic forms in the real world, the latter as a lunatic delusion related to the eidola, the shadowy likenesses of the apparent world."

And look at this lovely quote from Albrecht durer: "If someone really possessed these inner ideas of which Plato speaks, then he could draw his whole life from them and create artwork after artwork without ever reaching an end."

Wow, this Paracelsus stuff reminds me of the brain plasticity thing I read the other day about imagining activities that in turn activate neural pathways: "Paracelsus likens the imagination to a magnet which, with its power of attraction, draws the things of the external world within man to reshape them there. Its activity is thus captured in the image of the inner alchemist, the sculptor or the blacksmith. It is crucial to master them for what man thinks 'is what he is, and a thing is as he thinks it. If he thinks a fire, he is a fire' (Paracelsus)."

Roos includes da Vinci's Vitruvian Man at this point:

And so we reach William Blake who "rightly described the deistic God of the progress-loving Enlightenment, who abandons the machinery of creation once he has set it in motion, leaving it to continue blindly on its course, as a Gnostic demiurge."

The next plate is from Baro Urbigerus, which shows up at Hathi Trust in an English translation: Aphorismi Urbigerani, or, Certain rules clearly demonstrating the three infallible ways of preparing the grand elixir, or circulatum majus of the philosophers : discovering the secret of secrets, and detecting the errors of vulgar chymists in their operations : contain'd in one hundred and one aphorisms : to which are added, The three ways of preparing the vegetable elixir, or circulatum minus / all deduc'd from never-erring experience by Baro Urbigerus (gotta love those 17th-century book "titles"). The book looks like a fun read, but it is poor on art; there is only one plate as follows:

The plate Roos includes (mercurial water) is from a German edition of Baro Urbigerus entitled Besondere Chymische Schriften, and when I Googled that, I found this treasure trove: Adam McLean's Gallery of alchemical images. I haven't been able to find an online edition of the German book, but find McLean's lovely collection of hand-colored images is well worth it. What a great project to handcolor the images as a form of study and meditation!

I hadn't expected all this gender stuff to be coming up, but it is fascinating; here's just a brief sample of the kinds of ideas Roos introduces here: "The climax of the Work is the moment of coniunctio, the conjunction of the male and female principle in the marriage of heaven and earth, of fiery spirit and water matter (materia from the Latin mater, mother). The indestructible product of this cosmic sex act is the lapis, the red son of the Sun."

Roos next includes two images from D. Stolcius von Stolcenberg, Viridarium chymicum (1624). It looks fascinating, but is not at Hathi Trust, alas. It is apparently an important emblem book, and I would really like to find a copy online. ... Whoo-hoo: here it is at a Swiss site: e-rara.ch, "the platform for digitized rare books from Swiss libraries." So, it's only available as PDF download, but that works! And it comes from a section of e-rara that will be really useful in general: Alchemy, Magic and Kabbalah (Foundation of the Works of C.G.Jung). Yes!!! So, back to Roos, here are the two emblems that he includes:

And I think I will stop there: so far this is turning out to be a great way to discover books to browse and read online. What a heap of books there will be by the time I get through all of Roos. :-)

Roos. Alchemy and Mysticism (1)

So, I got a Christmas present for myself, a lovely picture book from Taschen: Alchemy and Mysticism by Alexander Roos. I'm going to work through 10 pages per day (hopefully), and see just how many of these image resources I can find also in online versions! I'll label these posts as Roos to collect them.

Introduction

The first topic of the Introduction is Hermes Trismegistus, with an image of The Emerald Tablet from Khunrath's Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae, 1606. Roos includes this famous quote from a Hermetic text: "The below is as the above, and the above as the below, to perfect the wonders of the One."

There is a pair of lovely images from M. Maier, Atalanta fugiens, 1618: "The wind bears it in its belly," and "Its nurse is the Earth."

He emphasizes the pictures as code with a quote from the Rosarium philosophorum: "But where we have written something in code and in picture we have concealed the truth."

Hermaphrodite: supposed to be read as blend of sensual stimulus (Aphrodite) and intellectual appeal (Hermes).

Roos mentions the interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphs (prior to their decipherment by Champollion) as a "symbolic, rebus-like, esoteric script." I did some work on Horapollo back in graduate school; this sounds like a good excuse to drag those notes out again! Roos includes some of Durer's illustrations for Horapollo.

There is a wonderful emblem of Hermes from Achilles Baccius, Symbolicarum quaestionum (1555), with a Greek saying attributed to Simonides: After having spoken, I have often repented, but never after having kept silent.
ΛΑΛΗΣΑΣ ΜΕΝ ΠΟΛΛΑΚΙΣ ΜΕΤΑΝΟΗΣΕ, ΣΙΩΠΗΣΑΣ ΔΕ ΟΥΔΕΠΟΤΕ

Okay, I'll stop there and see what I can find online for these books!

... yes!

Amphitheatrvm sapientiae aeternae : solius verae, christiano-kabalisticvm, divino-magicvm, nec non physico-chymicvm, tertrivnvm, catholicon / instructore Henrico Khvnrath. Hathi Trust.

He has his dog with him on the title page! :-)

There are some astounding images here; this is the one Roos included:

I will have to come back to this book and browse!

And there are LOTS of copies of Atalanta fugiens : hoc est, Emblemata nova de secretis naturae chymica / athore Michaele Majero. Hathi Trust.

Here are the images Roos included:

And here is Achillis Bocchii Bonon. Symbolicarvm quaestionvm de vniverso genere qvas serio lvdebat libri qvinqve. Hathi Trust. This one is my favorite so far; I will definitely be coming back to this one! Here is the Hermes that Roos included with the Simonides quote below the figure of Hermes. There is also a Latin superscription: MONAS MANET IN SE, "the one abides in itself."

And it took some sleuthing, but it's possible to learn about Durer's illustrations for Horapollo here: Die Hieroglyphenkunde des Humanismus in der Allegorie der Renaissance by Karl Giehlow (1915). Hathi Trust. See especially the illustrations at p. 173 and following.

So, for my first chunk of the book, I've been able to find all the illustrations in online editions of the source books that Roos is consulting. I wonder if I will be that lucky for the whole book...?! How cool that would be!